Mozilla News, Announcements, and More

Firefox OS has unlocked the mobile ecosystem and is quickly expanding across a broad range of devices and product categories in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Just one year after the first devices were launched, Firefox OS is now available on seven smartphones offered by five major operators in 15 countries, showing strong signs of ecosystem momentum and widespread industry adoption.

New Partners, Markets and Opportunities

Firefox OS leverages the Web as the platform to enable flexibility, scalability and powerful customization, and is free of limits and restrictions associated with proprietary mobile operating systems. The success and growth of the platform has encouraged global and regional operators to continue advancing Firefox OS in their markets.

“Firefox OS has emerged out of the ‘other’ category as one of the top platforms for the global smartphone industry,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director, Global Wireless Practice (GWP) at Strategy Analytics. “Strong interest from major operators and hardware makers has enabled Firefox OS to make headway in key regions and challenge established software players.”

Expansion in Europe

Deutsche Telekom will be the first operator to sell the new ALCATEL ONETOUCH Fire E phones, available in Germany this week through congstar. In the coming months, Deutsche Telekom will also launch Firefox OS devices in four new markets – Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia and Montenegro

Telefonica just announced that Germany has become the ninth country where they offer Firefox OS phones, after O2 started pre-sales of ALCATEL ONETOUCH Fire E phones

ZTE will launch the Open C as the first Firefox OS device available in France later this month.

Firefox OS Launches Throughout Latin America

Telefonica will offer Firefox OS phones across all of their Latin American markets by the end of the year, expanding to Central America in the next few months and followed by Argentina and Ecuador. Telefonica is also expanding its Firefox OS portfolio, having recently launched ZTE Open C and Open II devices in the region and soon offering the Alcatel ONETOUCH Fire C phones, all running the latest version of Firefox OS

América Móvil, which launched Firefox OS phones in Mexico earlier this summer, is committed to expanding its offering in Latin America by the end of the year.

Firefox OS Coming Soon to Asia Pacific

Spice and Intex will soon launch the first Firefox OS devices in the ultra-low-cost category in India

Telenor confirmed they will offer Firefox OS phones in Asia by the end of the year

Chunghwa Telecom, the largest operator in Taiwan, recently announced that they have joined more than 20 operators committed to delivering Firefox OS in their markets.

Looking Forward

As the Firefox OS ecosystem expands, we are working with partners to bring the experience to higher-end devices and more form factors, proving the flexibility of the Web as the best development platform.

To accelerate the design, development and testing of the Firefox OS ecosystem, Mozilla has partnered with Thundersoft to manufacture and distribute the Firefox OS Flame reference phone, now on sale. The Flame is representative of the mid-tier phone hardware that Mozilla and its partners will release over the coming year.

Mozilla continues to evolve Firefox OS to include features like NFC and enhanced Bluetooth connections that support easy sharing of content like contacts, videos and images; LTE support to make the mobile experience even faster; and Firefox Accounts as a safe and easy way for users to take Firefox everywhere through services that include the Firefox Marketplace, Firefox Sync, device backup, cloud storage, and a service to help locate, message or wipe a phone if it is lost or stolen.

Mozilla is working with Panasonic to develop next generation SmartTVs running Firefox OS, and Abitcool will launch an HDMI streaming device later this year that allows the user to fling content from compatible mobile or Web apps to an HDTV.

“It’s been a year of both tremendous growth and exciting opportunity for Firefox OS,” said Andreas Gal, Chief Technology Officer at Mozilla. “As the only truly open-source platform, Firefox OS has unlocked users, developers and industry participants from the mobile market’s closed systems and content gatekeepers. Now, we are expanding that pursuit across new regions, handheld devices, and soon into other areas of our users’ lives as new form factors begin to take shape.”

Supporting Partner Quotes:

Dan Dery, Chief Marketing Officer of ALCATEL ONETOUCH, said: “Our FIRE series is a perfect example of how we innovate to enable mobile Internet access for everyone. With Mozilla’s Firefox OS, we’ve designed affordable, rich-featured devices that create unmatched value for our customers. ALCATEL ONETOUCH will continue to partner with Mozilla as we grow our range of devices to meet the different needs of customers in every market segment across the globe.”

Marco Quatorze, Director of Value-Added Services at América Móvil, said: “América Móvil has always been at the forefront in mobile technology, that´s why we are glad to announce that América Móvil will continue selling Firefox OS phones and is committed to expanding the offering in Latin America by the end of the year. With this, we can offer all our users a combination of excellent mobile devices with an innovative operating system.”

Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product & Innovation Officer at Deutsche Telekom, said: “The continuing rollout of Firefox OS across our European markets is tangible proof of our partnership with Mozilla to bring an open operating system to all of our customers. Deutsche Telekom is the biggest operator in Europe for Firefox OS. In the upcoming months we intend to introduce new smartphones with Firefox OS and extend our footprint to four more countries: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia and Montenegro.”

Yuki Kusumi, Director of the Home Entertainment Business Division of the Appliances Company of Panasonic, said: “With our joint announcement in CES 2014, we started to work with Mozilla on our next generation smart TV running Firefox OS. We are glad to see that Firefox OS gained fruitful results in the first year, both in ecosystem expansion and development on different form factor devices. In the second year of Firefox OS, with Open Web technologies and collaboration with the talents from Mozilla, we will realise further innovation in smart TV technologies and products, and bring customers a whole new level of experience.”

Francisco Montalvo, Group Director of Devices at Telefonica, said: “We are delighted that our customers are supporting Firefox OS in their countries, with significant penetration in many of them. Telefonica is determined to give back control of the content, privacy and freedom to its customers and Firefox OS is the ecosystem that best supports that goal.”

Adam Zeng, CEO of Mobile Devices at ZTE, said: “Mozilla is a key partner for ZTE, as we both share the commitment to bring cutting-edge mobile Internet innovations to consumers across the world. ZTE has long recognised the potential of Firefox OS as a key platform that offers unique value to mobile users globally, and we will continue to invest in the success of our partnership.”